Right now, Callisto Protocol is available for free on the epic games store.
Looking at their marketing, it reminds me a lot of Dead Space. Starting from the immersive UI with the health bar on the players suit, to that sign in the trailer that tells me to shoot the limbs of the enemies. And I mean, the enemies don’t look that different, basically some kind of aggressive infected zombie thingies. And then, the whole setting seems so similar: a space outpost being overrun by some kind of zombie virus.
Did anyone here play both Dead Space and Callisto Protocol? Did you find them very similar?
As I understand it, Callisto Protocol was made by some of the OG Deadspace Devs.
And the entire concept revolves around filling the hole left by Deadspace as EA haven’t shown much interest in any new installments.
But overall it came up short as it didn’t seem to add anything particular interesting to the format.
From what I have gathered from various YouTubers, it’s scratches the itch of Deadspace without being satisfying.
There’s just too much nostalgia tied to DS and CPs story isn’t interesting enough.
It was good in many ways. And it expands on dead space in many ways mechanically, it just didn’t follow through in some aspects.
The guns are cool and there’s a very satisfying melee system.
But the melee system is overpowered, which means monsters are less scary. The sound-based stealth sections where you go through rooms full of blind monsters that allegedly react to sound, have the monsters being completely deaf to melee kills, which means you can just walk up to them one by one and clear the room.
And you’re right about the story. The game should have had LORE, but it’s just the bare minimum generic excuse to have a horror setting.
Oh I have no doubt the game is good.
It was just what I understood went wrong with the game.
That it’s a good game on it’s own premise, but when compared to the games it was supposed to be compared with, it just seemed mediocre. It’s just hard competing with an established franchise. Especially one that is as beloved as DS is, not to mention that DS’s own reboot also fell short as the OG games are still as grand as ever.
With exception of the graphics looking a little dated, Deadspace 1 holds up just fine even when compared to newer games. From atmosphere to mechanics, UI and story… It’s all perfectly within parameters for the type of game it is.
I think we’re likely gonna see some of same with the Silent Hill 2 Remake. There’s a lot of marks to hit. Even the old tank controls adds to what makes the game intense and updating the combat system to something less clunky could potentially take away from the game rather than improving it.
That it’s a good game on it’s own premise
It doesn’t really even manage that. It’s not bad, there’s a lot to like, but playing it I ran into a lot of stuff I wish was there, but wasn’t.
The story was one thing, but it completely fails at bulding tension. DS1 fills you with adrenaline at regular intervals, but in Callisto Protocol the second I realized the “sound-sensitive” blind enemies don’t react to the noise of melee combat, it was like all the air went out of the balloon.
That’s a perfect microcosm of the whole game. Really neat ideas, really good execution, but only to 90%. And that last 10% matters. A LOT.
The combat system is great, but it doesn’t lean into it at all. The final boss is just a bullet sponge that makes no clever use of any mechanics, and the game is so obsessed with trying to be DS (and TLOU) with boring stealth sections and puzzles.
You end up spending a lot of time wishing combat was happening.
I feel like a Callisto Protocol 2 that leans into the things worked, and fixed just a couple small things that get near working, could be amazing.
That’s a good take.
I never played it myself. Just watched some Letsplays and heard some of the criticism. And ‘Let’splayers’ tend not to be too harsh.
But overall it came up short
Know what was actually really, really good?
The tie in podcast. Great production value, great voice actors, and really great story, character development and pacing!
I grab Calisto Protocol off Epic, but only because it’s free. I watched some reviews and gameplay footage, and it’s…kinda meh. From what I saw of gameplay, the story is a bit reductive, and, unless they fixed it the melee combat is a bit of a joke.
nope, not hidden, it’s almost official “spiritual successor”
It’s very similar but nowhere near as good. I got it for free on playstation a while back and stopped playing it to go back and play the dead space remake again.
I haven’t played Callisto Protocol, but it seems like it’s explicitly a spiritual successor, yeah
Yes and no.
It’s not as good as dead space, and not as scary.
It does have decent atmosphere, cool visuals, etc. The combat system is very good. Much more action game than horror game. The melee system meant that not running out of ammo and being careful with your shots wasn’t as important as in dead space.
It falls short in several disappointing ways. The “stealth” system is a joke. There’s a level where you have to sneak around “blind” monsters that only act on sound, except you can walk right up to them and just melee kill them, LOUDLY, without any of the others reacting.
So the stealth sections are completely trivial.
There’s a pretty interesting enemy in the form of the automated security robots of the prison, except it literally shows up in just the tutorial, where it shows you how to deal with them, but then they’re utterly absent in the rest of the game.
The whole game is really impressive in a couple ways (graphics and animation, the combat system) but it feels like 50% of what was supposed to be in it was cut, and like several mechanics never got implemented.
Sounds a lot like they tried to make a “game like dead space”. But then by trying to imitate that, they necessarily and almost predictably fell short behind the original.
